Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Regional Topological Aberrances Of White Matter- And Gray Matter-Based Functional Networks For Attention Processing May Foster Traumatic Brain Injury-Related Attention Deficits In Adults, Ziyan Wu, Meng Cao, Xin Di, Kai Wu, Yu Gao, Xiaobo Li

Publications and Research

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is highly prevalent in adults. TBI-related functional brain alterations have been linked with common post-TBI neurobehavioral sequelae, with unknown neural substrates. This study examined the systems-level functional brain alterations in white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) for visual sustained-attention processing, and their interactions and contributions to post-TBI attention deficits. Task-based functional MRI data were collected from 42 adults with TBI and 43 group-matched normal controls (NCs), and analyzed using the graph theoretic technique. Global and nodal topological properties were calculated and compared between the two groups. Correlation analyses were conducted between the neuroimaging measures that …

Cryptococcus Neoformans Melanization Incorporates Multiple Catecholamines To Produce Polytypic Melanin, Rosanna P. Baker, Christine Chrissian, Ruth E. Stark, Arturo Casadevall

Publications and Research

Melanin is a major virulence factor in pathogenic fungi that enhances the ability of fungal cells to resist immune clearance. Cryptococcus neoformans is an important human pathogenic fungus that synthesizes melanin from exogenous tissue catecholamine precursors during infection, but the type of melanin made in cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is unknown. We analyzed the efficacy of various catecholamines found in brain tissue in supporting melanization using animal brain tissue and synthetic catecholamine mixtures reflecting brain tissue proportions. Solid-state NMR spectra of the melanin pigment produced from such mixtures yielded more melanin than expected if only the preferred constituent dopamine had been incorporated, …

Careless, Brenna Holland

Capstones

About This Project

I began working on this project six months ago, but my interest in the home care industry can be traced much further back. In the mid-aughts, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Hoping to live independently for as long as possible, he sought out the help of an in-home health aide. It was then that he learned he fell into a coverage gap; one that, even today, prevents many Americans from accessing home care services.

Faced with two options—father-son cohabitation or an institution—my grandfather moved in with my family, where he slipped into a catatonic depression prompted …

Living Positive, Cheyann Harris, Emani King Mack

Capstones

A short documentary by Emani King Mack & Cheyann Harris, that focuses on Black men who are living with HIV. This film features the stories of Malik Davon, Jah Love, and Melchizedek Roberson to destigmatize, empower, and set a new precedent in media on how to cover people living with HIV.

Link to capstone: https://cheyannharris.wixsite.com/livingpositive

Dear Maliha,, Na-Eela Djemil

Capstones

Dear Maliha is a short documentary film exploring the complexities of spiritual abuse through Maliha Fairooz. Spiritual abuse is a form of abuse that uses spiritual or religious beliefs to control or manipulate others. In some cases, spiritual abuse can be used to describe a religious leader who abuses their platform. But in Maliha’s story, we explore the concept of parental spiritual abuse. However, we learn more about this through Maliha Fairooz and the creative use of her journal.

For Maliha journaling is a form of therapy she uses to process her feelings and days. She also uses it as …

Chosen Family: One Woman’S Fight To Become Her Best Friend’S Next Of Kin, Yessenia M. Moreno

Capstones

Nearly 70,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the state of New York. For the queer community, this time of death and mourning has highlighted how complicated things can get at the end of someone’s life.

This audio documentary, “Chosen Family, ”is the story of one woman’s fight to overcome the legal system and become her best friend’s health care proxy in the final battle of his life .

Link to capstone project: https://medium.com/@yessimoreno/7b3d96691b9f

The Influence Of Comorbid Gad On Er Utilization In Urban Youth With Asthma, David A. Karpe

Theses and Dissertations

Current literature indicates a strong association between asthma and the early onset of comorbid generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in minors and their primary caregivers. Studies show that asthma prevalence increases with certain demographic factors, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and housing quality. Evidence also suggests that GAD influences decision-making, especially when deciding to utilize emergency room (ER) services for asthma-related concerns. This study analyzed the effect of comorbid GAD on minors with asthma and ER utilization. The data were provided by an earlier Stress & Justice Study (S&J) baseline survey, an investigation aimed at understanding the impact of parental criminal …

Harm Reduction En La Ciudad De Nueva York, Dimitri Fautsch, Jason Gonzalez

Capstones

Entrevistamos especialistas del Educadores de la Reducción de Daños de Nueva York y Sarah Evans quien era un líder del primero centro de la prevención de sobredosis en America Norte. Encontramos que este campo es una solución pragmática para la crisis de addición a los opioides.

Spanish - https://dimitrifautsch.medium.com/la-reducci%C3%B3n-de-da%C3%B1os-en-nueva-york-a0a8c8ccef4a

English - https://jasongonzalez76.wixsite.com/website/post/new-york-s-first-supervised-safe-injection-sites-are-a-first-of-its-kind-in-the-united-states

No One Told Me What Infertility Would Be Like For A Black Man. That's Because Nobody Knows., Keith "Jared" Wright, Zachary Smith

Capstones

I am a 34-year-old, 6-foot-3 Black man who weighed over 330 pounds. In navigating my infertility journey, I noticed a major disparity in donors throughout sperm banks all over the country. Additionally, I noticed that while male infertility is rarely discussed in general, it is significantly more suppressed in Black and Brown communities. An open dialogue and more transparency can hopefully ensure that those suffering from this condition can have an easier road in their journey than their predecessors.

https://zacharysmith90.github.io/capstone/

When A Woman Goes To Jail, Renee Onque, Emily Nadal

Capstones

The United States holds 30% of the world’s incarcerated women and the laws protecting their specific needs while in the prison system differ by state. New York, Minnesota and Alabama are introducing innovative ways to improve the birthing experiences of women who are incarcerated. From programs that allow mothers to send their breast milk on dry ice to their babies to nurseries within prisons that allow babies to live with their moms for up to a year, these states are pushing for progressive changes for mothers in the system. https://reneeonque.github.io/capstone/

From Burnout To Occupational Depression: Recent Developments In Research On Job-Related Distress And Occupational Health, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Job-related distress has been a focal concern in occupational health science. Job-related distress has a well-documented health-damaging and life-threatening character, not to mention its economic cost. In this article, we review recent developments in research on job-related distress and examine ongoing changes in how job-related distress is conceptualized and assessed. By adopting an approach that is theoretically, empirically, and clinically informed, we demonstrate how the construct of burnout and its measures, long favored in research on job-related distress, have proved to be problematic. We underline a new recommendation for addressing job-related distress within the long-established framework of depression research. In …

Caregiver Decision-Making Concerning Involuntary Treatment In Dementia Care At Home, Vincent Ra Moermans, Angela Mhj Mengelers, Michel Hc Bleijlevens, Hilde Verbeek, Bernadette Dierckx De Casterle, Koen Milisen, Elizabeth Capezuti, Jan Ph Hamers

Publications and Research

Background: Dementia care at home often involves decisions in which the caregiver must weigh safety concerns with respect for autonomy. These dilemmas can lead to situations where caregivers provide care against the will of persons living with dementia, referred to as involuntary treatment. To prevent this, insight is needed into how family caregivers of persons living with dementia deal with care situations that can lead to involuntary treatment.

Objective: To identify and describe family caregivers’ experiences regarding care decisions for situations that can lead to involuntary treatment use in persons living with dementia at home.

Research design: A qualitative …

Genomic Epidemiology Of Clostridium Difficile Colonization And Transmission In An Intensive Care Unit Cohort, Brianne Ciferri

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

Genomic epidemiology of Clostridium difficile colonization and transmission in an intensive care unit cohort

by Brianne Ciferri, MPH

Advisor: C. Mary Schooling, PhD

Introduction: Clostridiodes difficile (C. difficile) is a leading cause of healthcare associated infections (HAI) in the United States and responsible for an estimated incidence of 223,900 cases and 12,800 deaths per year^1,2. C. difficile can cause gastrointestinal illness with symptoms ranging from mild diarrheal illness to a life-threatening condition. C. difficile is an opportunistic pathogen in which spores can live in an undisturbed dormant state within the intestinal tract and become …

Systematic Review Of Pathways To Care In The U.S. For Black Individuals With Early Psychosis, Oladunni Oluwoye, Beshaun Davis, Franchesca S. Kuhney, Deidre M. Anglin

Publications and Research

The pathway to receiving specialty care for first episode psychosis (FEP) among Black youth in the US has received little attention despite documented challenges that negatively impact engagement in care and clinical outcomes. We conducted a systematic review of US-based research, reporting findings related to the pathway experiences of Black individuals with FEP and their family members. A systematic search of PubMed, PsycInfo, and Embase/Medline was performed with no date restrictions up to April 2021. Included studies had samples with at least 75% Black individuals and/or their family members or explicitly examined racial differences. Of the 80 abstracts screened, 28 …

Comparative Analysis Of 3d Printed Denture Resins With Traditional Denture Materials At The Micro Level, Aneeza Hussain, Caleb Beckwith, Gaffar Gailani

Publications and Research

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate and identify compression strength between traditionally manufactured acrylic dentures and additive manufacturing resin dentures. Specifically, the dentures produced by Uhler Dental, its Reveal line were compared against samples produced on the Formlabs Form 2 SLA, Stereolithography, 3D printer using their Denture Teeth A2 resin to test compression strength to assure they are compatible with the occlusal forces in the oral cavity. Using the ZwickRoell tensile testing machine, it appeared that the acrylic dentures were half as strong as the resin dentures. Then we went ahead to and did a comparative analysis under …

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Alcohol Craving And Demand On Obsessive And Compulsive Drinking Characteristics: The Role Of Impulsivity, James V. Turner Iv

Theses and Dissertations

This study’s goal was to test a novel model of obsessive-compulsive thoughts about drinking. Young adults completed tasks measuring potential drinking characteristics. Findings indicated demand was related to higher OCTD, a significant effect of CIC on OCTD via demand, and that the relationship was particularly strong for impulsive individuals.

Improving The Collection Of The Family Health History: One Office's Experience, Danielle Marie Andrusko

Open Educational Resources

A powerpoint outlining this project for a nursing class at the College of Staten Island.

Factors Influencing Academic Self-Efficacy Among Nursing Students During Covid-19: A Path Analysis, Shinhi Han, Koun Eum, Hee Sun Kang, Kathleen Karsten

Publications and Research

Introduction: The shift to online learning owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is posing an additional challenge to academic success, particularly for students who speak English as a Second Language (ESL). This study aimed to examine the factors that contribute to academic self-efficacy among ESL nursing students.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study using path analysis with 113 undergraduate ESL nursing students in New York City. Data were collected online using self-report measures of the study variables: academic self-efficacy, perfectionistic concerns, acculturative stress, and e-learning stress. A hypothetical path model was tested using AMOS 26.0.

Results: …

Exploration Of Dark Chemical Genomics Space Via Portal Learning: Applied To Targeting The Undruggable Genome And Covid-19 Anti-Infective Polypharmacology, Tian Cai, Li Xie, Muge Chen, Yang Liu, Di He, Shuo Zhang, Cameron Mura, Philip Boume, Lei Xie

Publications and Research

Advances in biomedicine are largely fueled by exploring uncharted territories of human biology. Machine learning can both enable and accelerate discovery, but faces a fundamental hurdle when applied to unseen data with distributions that differ from previously observed ones—a common dilemma in scientific inquiry. We have developed a new deep learning framework, called Portal Learning , to explore dark chemical and biological space. Three key, novel components of our approach include: (i) end-to-end, step-wise transfer learning, in recognition of biology’s sequence-structure-function paradigm, (ii) out-of-cluster meta-learning, and (iii) stress model selection. Portal Learning provides a practical solution to the out-of-distribution (OOD) …

Development And Validation Of A Method For The Determination Of Designer Benzodiazepines In Hair By Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (Lc-Ms/Ms), Laura C. Defreitas

Student Theses

In recent years, new designer benzodiazepines have become a challenge in forensic toxicology. These substances are analogues of the classic benzodiazepines, but their pharmacology is not well known, and many of them have been associated with overdoses and deaths. As a result, there has been a surge in efforts to develop ways to accurately test for these compounds in different biological matrices. This study focused to develop and validate a method for determining 17 new designer benzodiazepines in hair by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Hair samples were decontaminated, pulverized, and 20 mg of the sample was incubated in …

Expanding The Conceptualization Of Support In Low-Wage Carework: The Case Of Home Care Aides And Client Death, Emma K. Tsui, Marita Lamonica, Maryam Hyder, Paul Landsbergis, Jennifer Zelnick, Sherry Baron

Publications and Research

Home care aides are a rapidly growing, non-standard workforce who face numerous health risks and stressors on the job. While research shows that aides receive limited support from their agency employers, few studies have explored the wider range of support that aides use when navigating work stress and considered the implications of these arrangements. To investigate this question, we conducted 47 in-depth interviews with 29 home care aides in New York City, focused specifically on aides’ use of support after client death. Theories of work stress, the social ecological framework, and feminist theories of care informed our research. Our analysis …

A Closer Look At The Aha's Antibiotic Prophylaxis Guidelines, Dora-Ann Oddo

Publications and Research

In May 2021, the American Heart Association (AHA) updated its antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines for the prevention of infective endocarditis (IE). As some dental and dental hygiene procedures may increase the risk of this potentially life-threatening infection in at-risk patients, oral health professionals must have a thorough understanding of this serious, albeit rare infection of the heart and understand appropriate precautions for treatment. This article focuses on the AHA's guidelines; however, oral health professionals should also consider the IE guidelines from the American Academy of Orthopedics Surgeons.

A Full-Factorial Randomized Controlled Trial Of Adjunct Couples Hiv Testing And Counseling Components Addressing Drug Use And Communication Skills Among Sexual Minority Male Couples, Tyrel J. Starks, Kory D. Kyre, Christine B. Cowles, Juan Castiblanco, Catherine Washington, Jayelin N. Parker, Erin M. Kahle, Rob Stephenson

Publications and Research

Background: The past decade has seen increasing attention directed to the development of HIV prevention interventions for male couples, driven by epidemiological data indicating that main or primary – rather than causal – partnerships account for a substantial number of HIV infections in this population. Couples HIV testing and counseling (CHTC) has emerged as a standard of care in the US. This protocol describes a study that aims to evaluate the efficacy of two adjunct components to CHTC – communication training (CT) videos and a substance use module (SUM) – to reduce drug use and sexual HIV transmission risk …

Guidance For Management Of Free-Roaming Community Cats: A Bioeconomic Analysis, Valeria A. Benka, John D. Boone, Philip S. Miller, Joyce R. Briggs, Aaron M. Anderson, Christopher Slootmaker, Margaret Slater, Julie K. Levy, Felicia B. Nutter, Stephen Zawistowski

Publications and Research

Objectives This study used computer simulation modeling to estimate and compare costs of different free-roaming cat (FRC) management options (lethal and non-lethal removal, trap–neuter–return, combinations of these options and no action) and their ability to reduce FRC population abundance in open demographic settings. The findings provide a resource for selecting management approaches that are well matched for specific communities, goals and timelines, and they represent use of best available science to address FRC issues.

Methods Multiple FRC management approaches were simulated at varying intensities using a stochastic individual- based model in the software package Vortex. Itemized costs were obtained from …

The Nature Of Anti-Asian American Xenophobia During The Coronavirus Pandemic: A Preliminary Exploration Into Envy As A Key Motivator Of Hate, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Background. The current Coronavirus pandemic has been linked to a dramatic increase in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate incidents in the United States. At the time of writing, there does not appear to be any published empirical research examining the mechanisms underlying Asiaphobia during the current pandemic. Based on the stereotype content model, we investigated the idea that ambivalent attitudes toward AAPIs, marked primarily with envy, may be contributing to anti-AAPI xenophobia. Methods. Study 1 (N = 140) explored, through a survey, the link between envious stereotypes toward AAPIs and Asiaphobia. Study 2 (N = 167), …

Stimulating The Facial Nerve To Treat Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review, Turner S. Baker, Justin Robeny, Danna Cruz, Alexis Bruhat, Alfred-Marc Iloreta, Anthony Costa, Thomas James Oxley

Publications and Research

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a common devastating disease that has increased yearly in absolute number of cases since 1990. While mechanical thrombectomy and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) have proven to be effective treatments, their window-of-efficacy time is very short, leaving many patients with no viable treatment option. Over recent years there has been a growing interest in stimulating the facial nerves or ganglions to treat AIS. Pre-clinical studies have consistently demonstrated an increase in collateral blood flow (CBF) following ganglion stimulation, with positive indications in infarct size and neurological scores. Extensive human trials have focused on trans-oral electrical stimulation …

Insights Into Using Plants In Management Of Viral Diseases., Vyacheslav Dushenkov, Anna Dushenkov

Publications and Research

Botanical therapeutics possess a unique potential in the treatment of viral diseases. The pharmacological base and clinical use of botanical therapeutics have been extensively reviewed. The mode of action(s) may be built either on the direct interference with the virus's ability to enter human cells, virus replication, or exerting immune-modulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. The adjuvant treatment with botanical therapeutics has the potential to result in advances in symptom resolution, decrease in disease burden and shortening its duration.

How Can I Get Covid?: Understanding Diferences In American Heterosexual And Sexual Minority Men’S Risk Perception, Devon M. Price, Amanda N. Gesselman, Rachel A. Fikslin, Alison J. Goldberg, Omaima Pervez, Mora A. Reinka, Elissia Franklin

Publications and Research

Men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections compared to women, but their risk perceptions around COVID-19 are persis - tently lower. Further, men often engage in less health promotion behavior because self-care in this capacity is seen as weak or less masculine. This combination has consequences for mortality; thus, a better understanding of men’s COVID-19 cognitions and individual diference factors is critical. In a web-based survey conducted during the beginning stages of the pandemic in the U.S., we collected risk perceptions of various sexual and non-sexual behaviors from heterosexual ( n = 137) and gay/bisexual men ( n = 108). …

Treatment Selection Using Prototyping In Latent-Space With Application To Depression Treatment, Akiva Kleinerman, Ariel Rosenfeld, David Benrimoh, Robert Fratila, Caitrin Armstrong, Joseph Mehltretter, Eliyahu Shneider, Amit Yaniv-Rosenfeld, Jordan Karp, Charles F. Reynolds, Gustavo Turecki, Adam Kapelner

Publications and Research

Machine-assisted treatment selection commonly follows one of two paradigms: a fully personalized paradigm which ignores any possible clustering of patients; or a sub-grouping paradigm which ignores personal differences within the identified groups. While both paradigms have shown promising results, each of them suffers from important limitations. In this article, we propose a novel deep learning-based treatment selection approach that is shown to strike a balance between the two paradigms using latent-space prototyping. Our approach is specifically tailored for domains in which effective prototypes and sub-groups of patients are assumed to exist, but groupings relevant to the training objective are not …

Type Vi Secretion System Mutations Reduced Competitive Fitness Of Classical Vibrio Cholerae Biotype, Benjamin Kostiuk, Francis J. Santoriello, Laura Diaz-Satizabal, Fabiana Bisaro, Kyung-Jo Lee, Anna N. Dhody, Daniele Provenzano, Daniel Unterweger, Stefan Pukatzki

Publications and Research

The gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of the diarrhoeal disease cholera and is responsible for seven recorded pandemics. Several factors are postulated to have led to the decline of 6th pandemic classical strains and the rise of El Tor biotype V. cholerae, establishing the current 7th pandemic. We investigated the ability of classical V. cholerae of the 2nd and 6th pandemics to engage their type six secretion system (T6SS) in microbial competition against non-pandemic and 7th pandemic strains. We report that classical V. cholerae underwent sequential mutations in T6SS genetic determinants that initially exposed 2nd pandemic strains …